Nanking: A story of a Struggle
by Sincerely-Vixen
Summary: A story of a young woman’s fight for her very life through the period known as the ‘Nanking Massacre’. Graphic rape and death. Rated M for a reason.


**Nanking: A story of a Struggle**

One-Shot

Rating: M – Mature situations involving _rape, death of infants, torture,_ and forced _incest._

Summary: A story of a young woman's fight for her very life through the period known as the 'Nanking Massacre'. Graphic rape and death. Rated M for a reason.

Inspiration: Social class and Mr. Champ.

Dedication: To those whom lost their lives to _Genocide_.

Words to know:

_Bayonet_: A knife or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the muzzle of a rifle barrel.

_Genocide_: Is the deliberate destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.

**Warning:** This is not for the weak of heart or stomach. Very graphic displays of death and rape. Not for children. Do not continue if you can't stomach graphic scenes of rape and death. I mean it guys. I repeat once more do not read if you can not handle graphic violence. This _**will**_ scar you.

* * *

Nanking: A Story of a Struggle

"Kagome! What are you doing?" Sango asked. I looked up from my book and tilted my head ever so slightly. She rolled her eyes and smiled as she sat beside me. Sango was a few inches taller them me, her brown eyes as expressive as her words, a softer shade then her hair. She had the darkest of brown hair that always seemed to flow down her shoulders to her waist.

"You shouldn't stay in here reading all the time!" Sango pointed out. I rolled my eyes at her, putting my book down to tie my black hair up in a messy pony tail.

"Well, that's the only way you learn." I nodded and turned back to reading my book.

"Silly… When is your family coming home?" I looked to the small clock on the wall.

"Soon. Why?" I watched Sango's eyes darken to cinnamon as she walked towards the door. She stood in the doorway, turning her head just slightly.

"The Japanese soldiers…I heard they just took over Manchuria a few days ago…they may come here next." And then she was gone. I sat up, then, my eyes vaguely scanning my dusty closed-in, run-down house, before I shivered.

Here? Nanking? Why on earth? It was just a small city, no one would attack here…would they? I shook my head and lay down on my bed, trying to forget Sango's words of warning.

Days after, the attack came. Japanese soldiers overran Nanking. Death and destruction swallowed my city.

* * *

Blood… the city streets were literally painted crimson. Fire blazed with such heat I thought I'd faint. I ran down the streets with the other woman, running as fast as we could, jumping over the bodies of friends that lay on the ground, drenched in blood.

I ducked into the space between two buildings; discretely peeking through the window, I felt bile rise to my throat as I saw Sango. No longer were her eyes vibrant and shining, but vacant and dead. She was tied up to the bed, naked.

Scars marred her soft skin; dirt covered most of her bruises. I felt tears well in my eyes as I saw her being raped… by her brother, Kohaku. A Japanese soldier stood above the two, a gun point to Sango and Kohaku's heads. I wanted to scream….to cry out, to kill the soldier.

Sango scream out in terror as Kohaku cried. I watched as his lips moved, the word_ 'sorry'_ being spilled from them every second. The soldier was forcing him to rape his own sister. I looked away then, running down the street once more. I wanted to help, I wanted to save them, but the fear of what they'd do to me was larger then any fear I had ever felt.

I gathered my tatter dress up so that my legs would run faster, though I was only a few steps away from my hiding spot, I had heard the gun shots. I froze instantly. The fear of dying was replaced with the fear of losing people I loved. I ran back and looked through the cracked window.

I nearly screamed as I saw Kohaku's dead body being hauled off of his sister. Sango's pale body was covered in blood. She struggled now, screaming words that only they could hear. I placed a hand over my mouth, silencing my cries as the Japanese soldiers proceeded to rape her.

All fear was gone now. I had to save her. As I was about to run into the dingy house, I saw a soldier pull out another gun. This time the shot was fired, but I had witnessed.

Sango was shot it the head. Blood was spilling from the hole in her head and staining the white bed beneath her. Her body was in the position of shame, her legs spread, semen covering her lower region, blood splattered over her.

I held my breath as I turned and ran again, tears falling from my eyes, I kept running. I had nothing anymore. I had no one.

Flashes of my pregnant mother's stomach being split open by a soldier's sword and my younger brother's fetus being torn out after they raped my mother in front of me. Flashes of the Japanese soldiers forcing my grandfather to rape me, his refusal and then them shooting him in the head filtered through as I ran.

My lungs burned with flames only matched by those that were burning our very city down, my legs felt as if I couldn't go on, but still I continued. My heart raced against my rib cage as tears streamed down my face. I held in each whimper, scream and cry, afraid that they'd find me and kill me. I was terrified.

I was going to die. I knew I would.

I was going to die like everyone I loved.

"Hey! You!" I whipped my head around to see 3 soldiers running after me. I let out a scream as I ran faster then I had ever ran in my life. I screamed for help, for a savoir, for someone to save me from this hell on earth, but all I received as a laugh.

The soldiers caught me only seconds after, my body too weak to protest as they took me behind a building. I cried silently as they both started pulling down their pants. I wondered, briefly, did _they_ have children at home? Did they want this to happen to _their _daughters? Did they understand what they were doing?

Of course not…they didn't see us as humans.

I fought as hard as I could as one of the soldiers trapped my wrists above my head. He slapped me hard, punching me in the face again and again. I wanted to continue fighting, but my body seized up in pain as he broke my innocence. I cried out in sheer agony as he thrusted his hips over and over again; my whimpers fell on laughter and sneers.

I vaguely heard shouts of protest above me. I turned my head, my eyes opening just slightly to witness Japanese soldiers finishing the rape of a young girl. Her black hair was tousled, her face covered with dirt. Tears fell from her eyes as her body was exposed for all to see. I cried out with her, wishing for someone to save us, but knowing no one would.

I witnessed one of the Japanese soldiers stand, grab a long broken, sharp bamboo stick and spread the girl's legs. I screamed as they shoved the sharp end of the bamboo stick into a girl's lower region, effectively shutting her up. Blood was the only image I could see as they laughed sickly at the young girl's dead body. I could imagine the pain. I shut my eyes and screamed in terror as I heard her choked death. I whimpered; my body frozen in fear.

How were they going to kill me? How would I leave this world?

I hissed in pain as his seed filled me. I felt disgusted, dirty…scared. I waited for my death, but only received the other Japanese soldier, thrusting his hips into mine again. I threw my head back in a cry of pain. He stretched me to the limits, the pain of being torn in half was all that I knew for that instant.

He continued this twice, before he finally stood up. I felt tears trail down my face, my eyes burning from crying, my throat sore from screaming. I looked up at the two men, my vision barely clear. They both laughed, before saying something in Japanese and taking me with them. My wrists were tied behind my back, but it didn't matter.

My body was too weak to fight back. _I _was too weak to fight back.

I was taken to their camp. Men stared at me like I was meat. I shivered in disgust. I stood weakly as they dragged me to a post, other's my age and younger were tied to the post by their wrists. They left us there, going back to the fire with the other soldiers. Tents aligned the grounds, men laughing and talking as if nothing was wrong in the world stood.

My eyes hazily looked around, the cuts on my body stinging as dirt slowly seeped into them. The girls, all were beaten, cuts and bruises forming on their faces and bodies. I held back my cries as some of them whimpered, others stared at me.

"What is…your name?" One asked me. Half her hair was burnt off her head, her eye was swollen and turning a deep purple. Her wrists seemed to be burnt from rubbing against the rope.

"K-Kagome…" I spoke for the first time. The older girl nodded her head.

"I'm Ayame." She whispered back. I nodded my head back at her, looking away from the freshly burnt flesh covering the left side of her face. Blood was slowly streaming down and the smell of burning flesh made my stomach heave.

"It just happened a few minutes ago." She answered my unasked question. I looked down. She looked away. We all sat there quietly, though some of the younger girls were crying silently. I kept my tears bottled up; trying to forget the flashes of images of loved ones dying.

One of the Japanese soldiers stood up and walked over to us. My body tensed as the vibrations from his foot steps hit the ground. I looked down at the dirt covered ground, hoping to every god I knew he would pass me. My prayers were answered when he took one of the girls beside me.

He turned her around, her wrists still tied together; her body awkwardly faced his because of that. He yanked down her tattered shorts and instantly thrusted into her. I winced slightly as I heard her cry out in pleas. She seemed only he age of 10, he must have at least been 46. I turned away, not wanting to bear witness to another rape.

* * *

Days passed, and we were forced to sit with another group of Japanese soldiers by the Yangtze River. I had been raped nearly 6 times since we arrived here just two days ago. The girl, Ayame, had been beaten mercilessly, but she was still alive.

The girl that was raped just after I arrived, the one that was only 10 or so, was named Rin. She witnessed her family die before her eyes, they had forced her father to rape her and then they had shot her parents in the head. They had even raped her grandmother, who was 74 years of age. I sat on my knees, facing the rushing river before me, the sound of water drowning out most of the crude comments of the soldiers.

How easy would it be to just drown myself? I could just kill myself now; bear myself the pain of what they had in store. I looked down into my own reflection, my blue eyes older then I last remembered. Bruises marred my face, cuts scarred my lips. I was no longer Kagome.

I could kill myself now. I could do it.

"Kagome…are you alright?" I looked to the side, seeing Rin look up at me with those big brown eyes…the same shade as Sango's. I smiled and nodded my head at her.

I would continue to live. This was my own battle against the Japanese, to live. That's what they wanted the least. So I would defy them. I would live. Live for my mother, the brother that was never born, my grandfather, my friends. I would live for them.

"Haha! Cut him in half!" I heard a baby cry. Looking over I saw 2 soldiers, huddled around a small infant, no bigger them my arm.

The child's eyes were flowing tears, its small fists waving back and forth; it's softly tanned skin so soft, clean; pure. The baby wailed loudly, probably missing its mother as it twisted its body gently, kicking its legs together.

My eyes widened in fear as one of them took their sword out of its sheath. I blocked Rin's gaze as the sword sliced down, the infants crying ceased. I heard a splash and looked, seeing two halves of a child floated down the river, blood staining the rushing water.

Rin's eyes watered as she watched the baby float down the river, my own, casted to the side, trying to erase the image.

"The river's turning red." Ayame whispered to us. I looked down at the river, at the water instead of my reflection and realized she wasn't lying. The great Yangtze River was turning a murky maroon, no doubt from all the bodies that the Japanese had thrown in.

I watched as the water ran red with blood, people being slain before our very eyes, screams of pain rising to the Heavens and silenced by the sword of our captors. The only thing I could think of, was why anyone would want to do this to the people of Nanking?

_What had we done?_

_

* * *

_

It had been 5 weeks. Rin had died just last week. I had watched as she was gang raped by 4 men, unable to help. They beat her and she had cried. As she cried, one of the men took out their sword and slit her throat. Blood poured everywhere. They threw her body into the Yangtze River. I loved Rin as my sister.

I had almost died just last week, one of the men had tried to rape me, but I had fought back, luckily, he had been too drunk to remember the next day, where he had gotten the black eye. So many people had died. So many innocent deaths.

The Yangtze River had more bodies then the graveyards now. The water was no longer murky maroon, but crimson red. I watched as neighbours that I had grew up with were raped, beaten, slaughtered. I had seen Koga, one of my friends from grade school, being burned alive. Another friend was drowned. I had seen people being buried alive.

Ayame had gone the way the girl that I had watched when I was first raped had. Though not with a bamboo stick, a bayonet. I had seen infants being thrown in the air only to be impaled on the soldier's swords. I had seen it all.

So many cruel deaths littered Nanking now. The Japanese seemed relentless, killing again and again. There was even a contest amongst some of them; how many could they kill in a day. The most was 103.

I wasn't scared to _die_ anymore.

I was scared to _live_.

How could anyone live after knowing what humans, _people_, were capable of? Even if I survived somehow…

I would never recover from what happened, here in Nanking.

* * *

**Important A/N:** Okay, so I dislike this ending so much! But it has such a good meaning. I dislike it when you have to come up with your own endings, but I'm pretty sure it's easy to tell what happened. This is also my very first fanfic that had absolutely nothing to do with love. I mean, relationship love. Weird, right? Oh and a bit of random news, not even my editor could edit this. It took me almost a week to get through editing this…

So everything in this story is very much based off of true events. The things that happened here were true, though the Japanese government still deny the fact; mind you I got all this from various research. 300 000 Chinese were killed during the approximate 6 weeks of the Rape of Nanking which happened from December 1937 to January 1938.

This story isn't here to tell you to hate the Japanese. This is a story to tell you what life is. This stuff happened. People had gone through that. It isn't pretend. But even so, do not judge Japan for what happened then. I'm sure most Japanese Civilians were disgusted when they heard what had occurred. What happened then was the past. The people of Japan today are their own, they are not the people of before, please remember that.

This is just a story to make you face reality, and be aware. _Genocide_ is still happening, in places like Darfur. So don't just sit there. Create awareness for those who are still suffering. Help those who live in a world we all share,

Because they could be you.

Vixen


End file.
